Mitochondrial assays
Our mitochondrial assay kits provide a variety of methods to assess mitochondrial function and to understand the function of mitochondria.
Understanding mitochondrial function is critical to understanding normal and disease metabolism. In drug development, it is also important to test for mitochondrial toxicity of drug candidates.
Mitochondrial assays can be used to examine:
- Mitochondrial biogenesis
- Mitochondrial membrane potential
- TCA cycle assays
- Oxidative phosphorylation and mitochondrial ATP synthesis
- Oxidative stress
Mitochondrial biogenesis assays
Mitochondrial biogenesis assays measure the rate at which cells generate new mitochondria, providing a measure of mitochondrial health. These assays measure biogenesis by measuring the ratio of mitochondria and nuclear-encoded proteins, making it possible to understand effects on mitochondrial DNA replication and protein synthesis.
Mitochondrial membrane potential assays
Mitochondrial membrane potential is a key indicator of mitochondrial activity. Loss of membrane potential is a marker of cell death. A number of fluorescent dyes are available that accumulate in mitochondria or change fluorescence based on membrane potential. Our mitochondrial membrane potential assay kits.
Oxidative phosphorylation assays and mitochondrial ATP synthesis
Various assay types are available to study OXPHOS complexes.
- OXPHOS antibody cocktails are designed for use in western blotting and enable the levels of critical indicative proteins from all five OXPHOS complexes to be analyzed at the same time in each lane of a western blot.
- Enzyme activity assays for the different OXPHOS complexes measure the action of each complex on chemical substrates, producing a colorimetric readout. Some of these assays use a specific antibody to capture the OXPHOS complex onto a microplate to increase the specificity of the assay.
- MitoTox assays include purified mitochondria and make it possible to measure the effect of drug molecules on individual OXPHOS complexes.
Oxidative stress assays and redox biochemistry assays
Explore more information on our oxidative stress assays here.